New York – U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels fell last year for only the second time in six years.
Emissions of the greenhouse gas dropped 1.3 percent, to 5,877 million metric tons, as milder weather reduced energy needs, according to an Energy Department report released Wednesday. The last time carbon emissions fell was in 2001, when the U.S. economy slipped into a recession.
Carbon emissions last year fell even as the economy expanded. Carbon intensity – a measure of tons of emissions per dollar of gross domestic product – declined 4.5 percent, the biggest decline since 1990.
“I think it’s great that emissions dipped, but it’s no sign of a long-term trend,” said Eric Schaeffer, director of the Environmental Integrity Project and a former Environmental Protection Agency compliance director. “One season of mild weather isn’t going to change the reality of the looming climate disaster.”
President Bush has rejected calls for mandatory reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions as too costly, instead favoring voluntary targets to decrease carbon intensity. Sixteen Western and Northeast states have joined two regional programs to reduce gases that cause global warming under a cap and trade system.
Residential carbon emissions slipped 3.7 percent as heating-degree days, a measure of cold weather, declined 7.4 percent and cooling-degree days fell 1 percent. Since 1990, residential emissions have increased an average of 1.4 percent a year.
Industrial carbon releases related to energy use were down 1.2 percent even as output among aluminum, chemical and other manufacturers rose 3.9 percent, the report said.
In the transportation sector, increases in carbon emissions from gasoline and diesel fuel were more than offset by declines from other petroleum-based fuels.
Higher production of renewable power sources such as wind, landfill gas and hydroelectric dams, contributed to a 2 percent decline in carbon emissions from power plants.
Still, U.S. utilities plan to expand use of coal, the largest source of carbon emissions per British thermal units, to 57 percent of total power supplies by 2030, the agency said. That will boost heat-trapping gases by 44 percent, or 1.1 billion tons – the equivalent of adding 200 million cars on the road.
“The decrease last year is nothing compared to the whopping increases the EIA is forecasting,” Schaeffer said.
